Bottrop

Date

31 October 1944

Target

Bottrop

Force dispatched

493 aircraft

Aircraft lost

3

Sortie details (which aircraft from which squadron, which crew flew, the outcome) will populate this page once the TNA AIR 27 squadron-diary importer arrives.

The fallen

58 airmen in this archive died on 31 October 1944 or the day that followed. For a raid of this kind these are overwhelmingly the night's losses, though a death-date match is not by itself proof an individual flew this operation.

• Flying Officer William Frank Anderson (21)
• Flying Officer John Clement Badgley (21)
• Pilot Officer Andrew George Balfour
• Corporal Frederick William Beames (41)
• Pilot Officer Alexander Gordon Best
• Warrant Officer Class I Ernest Joseph Leonard Bolingbroke
• Flight Sergeant Harold Wallace Botterill (21)
• Pilot Officer De Willett Francis Brown
• Warrant Officer Joseph Merrick Towers Brown (21)
• Sergeant Kenneth James Burns (29)
• Flight Lieutenant Albert George Carlton (25)
• Flying Officer Donald Daubney Connor
• Flight Sergeant Clifford Eugene Leroy Cook (19)
• Pilot Officer Ernest Edward Courtis (23)
• Pilot Officer Arthur Francis Emery (18)
• Flying Officer Maxwell Alfred Flory (21)
• Squadron Leader Russel George Foskett (27)
• Flying Officer James Fraser (34)
• Pilot Officer William James Cameron Gibson (20)
• Pilot Officer Cyril Christian Goble (22)
• Flight Sergeant Leslie George Griffith (24)
• Flying Officer George Hardy De Beauvoir Hammond (27)
• Flight Sergeant Allan Frederick Hampshire (20)
• Second Lieutenant Raymond Hardwick

See all 58 who died on 31 October →

Source: RAF Bomber Command Campaign Diary (60th-Anniversary website, via the Wayback Machine) →